2017 running back market has gone bust

With plenty of recognizable names available at running back, only one has signed a contract. And he’s the one who is recovering from a torn ACL suffered in September.

Danny Woodhead’s deal with the Ravens covers three years and pays out $8.8 million, with $4.25 million guaranteed, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Media. (The report doesn’t specify how much is fully guaranteed at signing.)

That a far cry from last year, when in the early days of free agency multiple running backs got significantly better deals. Consider the following.

Those are the deals that the likes of Eddie Lacy, Latavius Murray, Jamaal Charles, and Adrian Peterson will be pointing to when the time comes to talk turkey. They’ll also likely look to the significant fullback contracts done this week (Kyle Juszczyk’s $21 million over four years, Patrick DiMarco’s $8.4 million over four years) as proof regarding the value that ball carriers bring.

On the other side of the not-so-much coin is the one-year, $1 million deal signed by fullback/running back Mike Tolbert in Buffalo, and the one-year, $775,000 contract inked before free agency by C.J. Spiller in Kansas City.

So what does that mean for the firm of Lacy, Murray, Charles & Peterson? It means that the deals given last year to Martin and Ivory will be very, very, very hard to even come close to matching when the time comes to collect checks from Duke & Duke.

Maybe a lot of this is the realization that you don’t need to overpay for the running back position. It isn’t as imperative to winning titles as it used to be. You can usually find serviceable ones on the scrap heap or develop one out of the draft.

Lacy, Charles, and Peterson are coming off injury plagued seasons. Murray was good, but not a game breaking rb. The contracts these guys would get would be overpaying them since you really don’t know what kind of production you will get from them.

Wish the Chiefs would offer Charles the league minimum with a bunch of incentives, instead of taking a chance on Spiller. Don’t know what Dorsey thinks he’s getting with Spiller except a training camp tackling dummy.

Charles and Peterson are old and multiple knee injuries they have little left to request top dollar and they know that they have to…but there value could come by a team who drafts a young talented back Split there time working them into a full roll with all time great running backs

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Some may have to wait until after the draft, as the usually reliable draft sources believe that this year’s RB class is the best in a decade.
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What sources? The guy I listen to says it’s a defensive draft with a variety of different types of rbs. Glad people are listening to the hype because I can obtain very good, young rbs who have produced in the NFL.

Some may have to wait until after the draft, as the usually reliable draft sources believe that this year’s RB class is the best in a decade.
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Cadreamer1969 says

What sources? The guy I listen to says it’s a defensive draft with a variety of different types of rbs. Glad people are listening to the hype because I can obtain very good, young rbs who have produced in the NFL.
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Bleacher Report, Sports illustrated, and Great Blue North draft report have all said that this is a stellar crop of RBs. They’re both talented and the supply is deep. With that said, the best overall talent is, in fact, on the defensive side of the ball. There is an excellent crop of edge rushers, CBs and, this year, even safeties. You can have a great crop of RBs in a defensive draft year.
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And then there is Buffalo’s GM Whaley, who is considering
giving the BACKUP RB Gillislee a $4MM/YR contract avg.
He also signed 2 fullbacks this free agency period.
Who does that since the 1950s ended?

Whaley is in the bottom 5 of the worst NFL GMs today.
Sadly the owners are equally clueless and will keep Whaley
around for at least 3 more years. The Bills will end up with
20 straight years of no playoffs.

“bucnasty says:
Mar 12, 2017 1:12 PM
Charles and Peterson are old and multiple knee injuries they have little left to request top dollar and they know that they have to…but there value could come by a team who drafts a young talented back Split there time working them into a full roll with all time great running backs”

I read comments because I’m actually interested in them and want to understand what the commenter is saying. So, a couple of suggestions:

“there,” “they’re,” and “their.” Check ’em out. And I think “role” is the word you’re looking for, in place of “roll”? All that, and a little punctuation would probably make your comment easily understandable.

Eddie Lacy has a reputation of motivational problems. Adrian Peterson and Jamaal Charles have had injury problems. Latavius Murray was not very productive last season Those are the reasons teams are not rushing out to pay them big bucks.

And then there is Buffalo’s GM Whaley, who is considering
giving the BACKUP RB Gillislee a $4MM/YR contract avg.
He also signed 2 fullbacks this free agency period.
Who does that since the 1950s ended?
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Gillislee led the league in YPC, scored 8 TD and gives the Bills a league leading 1-2 punch at RB. He also signed his 1 year RFA tender of 1.79 million. A far cry from 4mil a year. But have fun trolling with your Trump facts!